Menokreatikkul; Saturday Stitches

What the......!!!!!!

gggggaaaakkkk.... the stuff of nightmares....

A new WIP, which I'm making up as I go along, trying to bust as much of the cotton stash as possible, has been testing me. I'll write more about it when I show that project itself. Suffice to say for now about this, that the mercerised cotton I found tucked at the bottom of mum's old collection - in hanks - needed to be wound for ease of use. It's as slippery as all get out and a moment's inattention while watching the snooker and...

Did I get it sorted? To be determined as at time of posting...

You're sniggering, aren't you? You are, I can hear you. No, wait... that's me, cackling. The sanity might be slipping a bit.

On a brighter note...

FO... the Use It Don't Lose It project of working up all the little tiddly bits of Mum's homespun is finished. It will be improved by blocking, when I have the time and a decent drying day, but you can see how it drapes from this photo.

Hard to tell from this, but it's about 1.25 metres in length and 40cm wide. The very, very dark brown (almost black) yarn was raised from a merino sheep she and I helped shear on a working holiday farm in West Australia, nearly 30 years back! The chocolate brown beside it was from a Hebridean fleece. The particularly white of the creamy yarns is all Oz Merino. That darker, pearlised cream on the left panel was from Texel. Above that, you see the natural greys from Herdwick fleeces, followed by a much softer grey, which is a little bit that was separate from the Shetland batch that I am keeping for 'extra special'. 

The orange and tawny colours are Mum's natural-dyeing samples; the first is from onion skins, and I think the second is from rhubarb leaves, though I may have misremembered. I would mention here that Mum was a dye chemist for the wool mills in Galashiels before she got married!

Coming down the right side, you will see a patch that is almost mother-of-pearl... that was from a Blue Leicester fleece that she twisted with some silk. I don't think any dye was applied to this, but it certainly sparkles!

The simply linked chain arch pattern was perfect for showing off these swatches, and despite its filigree nature, this stole is very warm to wear. I have it over my shoulders as I type... Thanks, Mum. 

Menoturals; Cattle Crew

Well I never, it's Final Friday already and time to join up with the LLB gang for

Nature Friday!

How am I going to make this Friday extra special when sharing info about cattle? By sharing not one, but two different breeds with you today... Aren't you just bubbling with excitement at the thought? (If not, then trot on by and go check out what Rosy and Sunny have been getting up to.)

The first of the pair to share is a breed with which I was totally unfamiliar. When looking at this black cow, at very first glance, I thought 'hoorah, there's some Aberdeen Angus here... but wait a minute...' Looking closer, it was the wrong conformation, rather more buxom than an AA cow would be. It also had that white tail tip and some white ankle socks. Very confusing. Then I spotted the cow lying beside it. As they were together, I had to assume they were from the same herd...

Turned out I was correct. A bit of enquiry followed up with my usual research tactics, and I am now a bit wiser about the British Blue.

In the same manner that the Charolais landed here and was bred then to British requirements, so it was that in the 1980s the Belgian Blue cattle were imported and bred to meet the needs of the British farm and market. 25 years were spent establishing the British-type Belgian Blue, and in 2007, the British-only herd book and society were established, making this a really very 'young' breed at barely 20 years of existence. Similar adaptations have taken place in other parts of the world. As you may assume from the excess muscling, these are mainly bred for beef, although there are herds now that take a dual-purpose, with the milk proving of value when crossed with Holstein and other dairy cattle. The BB is also considered to be well-tempered and docile for handling.

The second breed I am sharing today is the Red Poll. 

Don't you just love that deep red colouring? They are among the prettiest of the cattle breeds, up there with the Highland, the AA, the Belted Galloway and the Hereford breeds (for me).

The Poll gets its name from its naturally hornless nature. This is a result of it being developed from crossing between the Norfolk Horn and the Suffolk Poll back in the eighteenth century. Thus, it is a fully British breed and fits the dual-purpose requirements of farming - beef and dairy. It is the dairy herd part of it that appeals to me, because this is one of the breeds that farmers like to keep on calf until weaning, rather than hauling the calves off the mothers at only two or three months. (Trust me, if you've ever heard the crying of the cows and calves as they are separated, you will never forget it... a grieving cow is one of the most heart and gut-wrenching sounds.)

These cows calve easily and are excellent mothers. The milk is considered high-quality for butter, so it is prized, although the yield may not be as high as from dedicated 'factory' milkers like the Holstein. 

Like the Highland and other older native breeds, the Red Poll is a hardy line that can survive on whatever fodder is available, with little need to supplement its diet. This makes them excellent for conservation grazing - and they are an advantage in public spaces such as country parks, as they tend to accept the presence of people well and are less threatening to the unfamiliar by virtue of being hornless.

These are also pretty much ideal cattle for smaller farms seeking to work more ethically and peel back to some older practices...  an example of that is lined up for next week's post, which will also be Filmclub day!

Menosukhi; An Awwww Post

Given that there is little else to report for my usual Thursday write-up (and that the Sunday posts are scheduled through to April), I am opting to put Buttons' latest Pupdate here for you to enjoy.